I spoke with two of the artists, but primarily one who had a couple of paintings with very unique older-looking women in them. There was something striking about them and so I asked about them:

LHS: "These woman..."

Young Artist: "They're not me."

LHS: "Well, yes, that I knew!"

And she seemed slightly reluctant to talk about them at length, but when I persisted, she explained that she was interested in indigenous peoples, and they represented some nondescript indigenous people somewhere, which made perfect sense and solved the riddle I was feeling since laying eyes upon them.

I think some people must go into galleries and ask the meaning of a picture and then not be ready to really listen to the answer the artist has - in which case it's not surprising that some artists become reluctant to discuss the meaning of their art....